


Sunset (day 29-Rope burns)

by Only_Slightly_Obsessed (A_Stressed_Cupcake)



Series: Rémy's 2020 Multifandom Whumptober Works [29]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen, I torture him too much I think, Infected wrists, Jean Valjean is a saint, Poor Jehan :(, Trauma, Valjean being a dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27291109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Stressed_Cupcake/pseuds/Only_Slightly_Obsessed
Summary: The water is tinged pink and yellow, like a sunset. There is nothing beautiful about it, though._____Whumptober 2020 day 29-Rope burns
Relationships: Jean Prouvaire & Jean Valjean
Series: Rémy's 2020 Multifandom Whumptober Works [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965271
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Sunset (day 29-Rope burns)

**Author's Note:**

> cw injuries and trauma :(
> 
> Warning: this is basically an au where Jehan is imprisoned instead of being executed and then saved by Javert and pointed to JVJ's house for help.

The water is tinged pink and yellow, like a sunset. There is nothing beautiful about it, though. It’s gruesome. The pink is just blood, the yellow is nothing but candlelight, a fickle flame, not the sun. Just a candle, because the blinds are closed. Just a candle.

His thoughts are jarringly interrupted when the old man soaks the cloth once again in the basin Jehan was just staring at, disrupting the imaginary sunset in a mess of splashes and circular waves. 

He curls up a little more. The bruises on his face and his arms ache, but the wounds on his wrists burn. They’re jagged and ugly and a little infected, seemingly, which is why the man took care to rub some alcohol into them, and didn’t  _ that _ burn like hellfire. Now, he’s washing out the last remainders of blood from them and wrapping them up in clean bandages. The left is already taken care of, but a particularly nasty spot on his right wrist just won’t stop bleeding. It has completely soaked the frayed cuff of his sleeve, making his shirt even more unusable than before. It doesn’t matter right now, though. There’s time. He doesn’t know where to go, and it doesn’t look like the man wants him to go anyway. 

The old man is silent. He seems like a quiet type, really, and his white hair is still a little humid. He had apparently just finished cleaning himself up when Jehan had knocked (or rather, banged frantically) on his door. Now, his wet hair forgotten, he sits before him next to a stool where the water in the basin sloshes slowly. And he’s helping him clean his tiny wounds. 

Jehan feels like he should say something. But so far, he hasn’t managed to explain himself at all. The good news is that he didn’t need to. The man assured him that he knows everything and sat him down to clean his raw wrists up. 

He tries, again, to speak, to tell him his name at least, but the old man gently interrupts him when he can’t get the words out: “I know your name, my boy. I assure you, it was spoken only with love when I heard it.”

He was at the barricade, that much is clear, but why his face darkens every time a stuttering Jehan tries to bring it up is beyond him.

“Don’t think about it now.” he tells him, softly, “You need to rest. You’re too shaken even to speak, so I won’t ask you to.”

He’s right about that. He can’t speak. He can think of the words, but they muddle on his tongue and fall broken and unrecognisable from his lips. 

Jehan doesn’t utter another word all morning. 

He only speaks again after he’s changed clothes and reluctantly eaten something. 

He puts the spoon down and says, with great delay, what he should have said at the beginning, the moment he knocked on the door.

“I’m so sorry to bother you.” he whispers, and bursts into tears.

**Author's Note:**

> That's right, I'm back on my missing moments les mis funk!! This'll be the last les mis fic in my whumptober plans, but that doesn't mean I'm out of ideas ;)))
> 
> Poor Jehan :( I torment him too much, but what can I say? Favourites get emotional and physical torture on the regular. My favourite characters are also my favourite victims.
> 
> -Rémy


End file.
